


Meldacio AU: Pride

by synnovx



Category: Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Flash Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 17:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15539664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synnovx/pseuds/synnovx
Summary: Reflections of the last living Almasy.





	Meldacio AU: Pride

They say that pride comes before the fall. 

It didn’t matter if he was twelve or twenty-six – Seifer could never really grasp exactly what compelled him to be so inherently prideful, so unapologetically arrogant. Maybe that was just his nature. Maybe he could blame it in the way he was raised.

But  _ how  _ was this boy raised? 

When he was a boy he always knew how his life would end up. He was a Prince. A Royal. An Heir. The eager boy would come of age and dutifully serve in the Imperial Army, much as his father, his grandfather, and everyone in the Almasy line had. A wife would be arranged and chosen for him. There would be children. When his father would grow old and die, Seifer would have been crowned Emperor and Niflheim and the rest of Eos would be his to either conquer or liberate.

He asked himself often if he would be happy? Would he still have dreams? What would he aspire to if he had everything he could ever want? Would he be like his father and be a tyrant? A man who left bodies to hang as a warning for transgressors or would he take after his sweet mother and be merciful?  

Mercy. Seifer wanted to believe that he never knew mercy but in truth, he did. The King may not have been the one to decide his fate when they pulled him out of Tenebrae, but he didn’t have to choose to keep Seifer, either. Very easily, the little lost Prince could have been given back to Niflheim to be done with as their new ruler saw fit. Execution. Re-Education. Indoctrination…

Maybe he would have shown mercy on the last Almasy. There was always that rumor – one he so often ignored– about Aldercapt being sweet on the Gralean Empress. It’s possible that the usurper would have spared the boy’s life solely for the sake of him being his mother’s last living descendant. The only piece of her that lived on. He did have his mother’s eyes, after all…. 

Perhaps then, he would have been brought up under the guidance of the usurper and maybe one day, if Seifer willed it, could have been named heir to the Empire regardless.

Too little to really think on it for long – and pointless to bother to keep imagining this fantasy, this alternate life. Seifer learned the hard way – in that no one is really in control of anything. Life seemed to have its own plan. Either by divinity or by some twisted cosmic sense of destiny.

Either way, it seldom ever coincided with whatever Seifer wanted. Generally, life gave him exactly what he didn’t want– putting him in his place. Reminding him of all that he lost, all that he would never get back yet and still. He always rose up, even after defeat. There was no use fighting it, Seifer realized. At least if he failed, he was learning something. Ever so resilient, even in defeat, at the very least Seifer still had his pride.

Only this time… this time he’s been broken. This time… Seifer didn’t get up and wasn’t sure if he had the strength to any longer.

Why would he bother when all hope was lost? 

This was it. This was the fall. 

**Author's Note:**

> So this was part of an answered ask that took a mind of its own and this kind of just... happened. You can read more about Seifer's presence in FFXV here: https://misplacedheroics.tumblr.com/verse


End file.
